ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap: Where Brunson Ranks with All-Time New York Sports Heroes

Jeremy Schaap grew up around the last great Knicks teams, so when Rich asked where Jalen Brunson ranks among New York's all-time sports heroes, Schaap pumped the brakes.

First, the family history. Schaap's father wrote The Open Man, a book about the 1969-70 season, with Dave DeBusschere. The family lived near DeBusschere and near Jerry Lucas of the '73 team. Earl Monroe came over. So did Phil Jackson, who Schaap suspects brought something, or at least cookies, given how fond his mother was of him. Frazier, Reed, Red Holzman, all of them passed through. The best story: Schaap's mother came home one night to find two tall strangers in the living room, and his father explained that one was Dave DeBusschere, a former major league pitcher, and the other, Bill Bradley, would be president of the United States someday. That '70 team, Schaap said, was arguably the most beloved in the history of New York, at least until a couple of nights ago.

So is Brunson a top-five New York athlete now? "That's tough on one championship," Schaap said. Pressed, he rattled off the names that set the bar: Babe Ruth, Lawrence Taylor, Mickey Mantle, Tom Seaver, Joe Namath, Mark Messier, Reggie Jackson. Rich's running counter was how many of them had been in Schaap's living room. The answer was a surprising number. Namath, yes. Seaver, absolutely.

That led to the best detour of the conversation. The Schaaps lived near the Seavers in Greenwich and had cats from the same litter, two Himalayans. Schaap's father, shaky on geography but aware Himalayas connect vaguely to India, named theirs Gandhi. Seaver named his Fergie, after Ferguson Jenkins, who had just beaten him out for the Cy Young. Whether it was competitive inspiration or pure bitterness, Schaap never asked, but the image stuck: Tom Seaver keeping an edge by naming a cat after the man who topped him.

On where the team itself ranks, Schaap stayed measured. Coming into the playoffs as roughly the third seed in the East, the way they actually performed elevates them. As an all-time New York champion, he put them up there with the 1986 Giants of Super Bowl 21, the '94 Rangers, and the '98 Yankees who went 125-50. They absolutely belong in that company.

Then Rich invoked the Jets, and Schaap delivered the bigger-picture sermon. The Jets championship, he argued, was never just about winning Super Bowl 3. After two Packers blowouts to open the Super Bowl era, that game validated the AFL and stands as one of the most important ever played. Some titles, in other words, mean more than the trophy. Brunson and the Knicks just added one to the list, even if Schaap won't crown him top-five on a single ring yet.